Hobby Lobby will replace Macy’s at Magic Valley Mall

Hobby Lobby will fill the pending vacancy where Macy’s plans to shut down March 31 at the Magic Valley Mall in Twin Falls.

The mall’s owner, Salt Lake City-based Woodbury Corp., announced Feb. 20 that Hobby Lobby and Olive Garden will open their first Twin Falls region locations in the fall at the mall.

“With the positive response we’ve received in our four Idaho stores, we believe this will be an excellent location,” Hobby Lobby communications coordinator Bob Miller said in a news release.

Hobby Lobby has four stores in Idaho, in Meridian (opened in 2010), Nampa (2014), Ammon (2015) and Chubbuck (2016).

Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby, which opened its 800^th store Jan. 8, essentially opens new stores every week.  The arts-and-crafts retail opened 63 new stores in 2017 with another 60 new stores anticipated in 2018, according to the company website.

Nationwide, vacant large retail stores can remain empty for months and years. Frequently, alternative uses fill empty big box stores, such as Athlos Academies in the former Macy’s in downtown Boise or Idaho Youth Ranch, Johnny’s Fit Club Fitness and Vector Christian Center filling portions of the former Kmart on Fairview Avenue.

Woodbury finding a new tenant before Macy’s even closes doesn’t surprise Bob Mitchell, retail broker and partner at Thornton Oliver Keller Commercial Real Estate in Boise.

“It just show that well-located real estate maintains its desirability,” said Mitchell, also citing Albertsons opening its new concept Market Street store in a former Shopko at Eagle Road and Fairview Avenue in Meridian. “Twin Falls continues to be a strong market. Population and income are two things that drive retail. Twin Falls has sufficient increase in population and good-paying jobs.”

Woodbury this year also is bringing out-of-state chains Blaze Pizza, The Habit Burger Grill and HomeGoods to its Canyon Park West and Canyon Park East shopping center near the Magic Valley Mall.

Macy’s has been the only tenant in the 61,000-square-foot at the Magic Valley Mall since 1987. The Macy’s closure is part of the retailer’s nationwide scaling back with about 100 closures announced since August 2016.

Olive Garden will build a 7,000-square-foot restaurant on a vacant pad just south of Sears and across from the Magic Valley Cinema 13.

“For the past 20 years, local residents have routinely put Olive Garden at the top of the list of most-desired businesses,” Woodbury President Randy Woodbury said in a news release.